artificial intelligence

Information about AI from the News, Publications, and Conferences

If you are looking for an answer to the question What is Artificial Intelligence? and you only have a minute, then here's the definition the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence offers on its home page: "the scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines."

However, if you are fortunate enough to have more than a minute, then please get ready to embark upon an exciting journey exploring AI (but beware, it could last a lifetime) …

People should brace themselves for the proliferation of artificial intelligence as it will change the way we live within three decades, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son told CNBC. "Within 30 years, definitely, things will be flying," Son told CNBC's David Faber in an interview that aired Friday. "Things will be running much faster without accident. We will be living much longer, much healthier. The diseases that we could not solve in the past will be cured."

Old-fashioned voice, thanks to AI, is poised to become the next human computing interface. Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that artificial intelligence is a big business trend right now. Corporate America is agog at the possibility of using AI to better extract and analyze data on everything from insurance claims to X-rays to the contents of your smart refrigerator (so you can buy more milk before you run out). But lost in the headlines is the fact that AI, in some form, has actually been around for decades. And many of the hot AI applications being trumpeted in the press today aren't really that advanced.

That is, if you were fortunate enough to get an invite. While last year's invite-only conference, held in southern California's Palm Springs, produced striking images of Bezos strolling with a robotic dog designed by Boston Dynamics, the CEO this time took to the stage with a flying robo-dragonfly. Much of this year's buzz, however, has come straight from the stars; among the attendees is actor Mark Hamill, who portrayed'Star Wars' protagonists'Luke Skywalker' in the films' original trilogy. Bezos demonstrated a robotic dragon fly on stage that circled around his head. As Hamill, who recently revived Skywalker for the latest iteration of the Star Wars franchise, mingled with guests, the conference's other attendees showcased their newest and most exciting revelations in the fields of robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more.

Google has taken the wraps off of its new gaming service. Dubbed'Stadia,' the gaming platform operates entirely on the cloud and lets users'instantly' stream games on any device, without the need for pesky downloading. The service is slated to launch later this year in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, with more details about available game titles expected to come in the next few months. Stadia ditches the traditional console; instead, users can play games with their existing laptops, desktops, TVs, tablets or phones, as well as their own keyboard and mouse. No updates, no downloads,' Google said.

The'world's first' AI-powered hearing aid connects to your smartphone and can translate speech into 27 different languages, say its creators. Experts claim to have mastered near-real time translation of Arabic, Japanese and French, among others, by listening for the foreign language and relaying it to the phone. The device is akin to the fictitious alien Babel fish that performs instant translations in comedy science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Creators Starkeys claim the technology reduces noisy environments by 50 per cent, while artificial intelligence optimises the hearing experience and its translation is compatible to Google Translate in terms of accuracy. The Livio AI, which is now on sale in the UK and costs £3,000 ($3,900), also has brain tracking technology and Alexa connectivity, and interfaces with the mobile app, Thrive Hearing.

A new piece of software developed by American tech company, NVIDIA, uses deep-learning to elevate even the roughest sketches into works of art. The new program, dubbed GauGAN, after famous French impressionist Paul Gaugin, uses a tool called generative adversarial networks (GAN) to interpret simple lines and convert them into hyper-realistic images. Its application could help professionals across a range of disciplines such as architecture and urban planning render images and visualizations faster and with greater accuracy, according to the company. A new piece of software developed by American tech company, NVIDIA, uses deep-learning to elevate even the roughest sketches into works of art. Simple shapes become mountains and lakes with just a stroke of what NVIDIA calls a'smart paintbrush' Artificial intelligence systems rely on neural networks, which try to simulate the way the brain works in order to learn.

Scientists have succeeded in creating simple cell-like robots that join together in large groups, move in a coordinated fashion and transport objects. They are able to coordinate their movements, transport objects and even respond to light. Scientists call them'particle robots' but even their creators admit they share similarities with the'grey goo' that prompted a famous warning from the Prince of Wales. Grey goo is a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which self-replicating robots consume all biomass on Earth. Scientists have succeeded in creating simple cell-like robots that join together in large groups, move in a coordinated fashion and transport objects.

A new host of liquid metals that have applications towards soft robotics are making movies like'The Terminator' transcend make-believe. According to researchers, experimental liquid metals like gallium and other alloys, when supplemented with nickel or iron, are able to flex and mold into shapes with the use of magnets, much like the iconic movie villain, T-1000 from'The Terminator 2: Judgement Day.' While other such metals have been developed, they contended with two major drawbacks. A new host of liquid metals that have applications towards soft robotics are making movies like'The Terminator' transcend make-believe toward real life. Researchers say experimental liquid metals like gallium and other alloys, when supplemented with nickel or iron, are able to flex and mold into shapes with the use of magnets. A new material revealed by the American Chemical Society solves to major problems experienced by similar substances.

Project management as a career is about to get upended by artificial intelligence by 2030, according to Gartner. Gartner projected that by 2030, 80 percent of that tasks involved in project management will be eliminated. Things like data collection, tracking and reporting will be taken over by AI. The research firm is betting that project management will get a heavy dose of artificial intelligence as program and portfolio management software players start to embed new technologies. Meanwhile, new providers will disrupt project management software.

In physics, particles are small localized objects with physical characteristics like mass or volume. From those humble ingredients, our virtually limitless universe is built. So it seems it was a mix of humility and pride that prompted researchers at MIT, Columbia, Cornell, and Harvard to name the robots in their novel new cooperative robotic system "particles." The concept, presented in an article in the journal Nature, is that a cooperative system of small robots might be able to do complex work, even if no single component in the system is computationally complex. It's the theory at the heart of a branch of automation called swarm robotics.